Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-24
THOSE BATTLE FLAGS.
q Calm View of tho SituatiOn-s'Let Us
Have Peace
New York Herald Editorial. June Il.

4 Calm View of tho Situatfon-s'Let Us
Have Peace"
New York Herald Editorial. June i.
When making up our judgment on an
imnortant matter. 1t is better to be cool
than excited. The mere partisan seizes
every opportunity to create political cap
itsI. and will use this battle flag incident
as g. stepping stone to the attainment OF
mis- personal ambition. Blu: the thought
full American citizen, whose motto is,
ssWith malice toward none, with charity
for SILL" and who wishes to form an optn-
lod from cold facts rather than hot prelu-
dices, will look twice before he leaps to
q conclusion.
Let us take quiet view of the stus-
ton. large number of flags, riddled
with bullets-proof of an unparalleled
struggle in which the south stoutly
defended them, but was compelled to
give way to the all-conquering onset OF
the hoys in blue-were placed for safe
keeping in charge of the United States
War Department. They were the sacred
relics of fratricidal contest which left
behind it million graves. They had and
always will have value not TO be
measured by bullion, but by the
unquenched and uDquenchable spirit
of patriotism which summoned
our fathers and sons, and even
our sisters and wives, TO the battlefield
Ia do and die in defense of the best
government the sun ever shone upon.
10 These tattered battle flags, some of
them borne by northern troops, many of
EN- wrested from southern regiments,
e for q time on exhibition in the
e IS S1RHnH-sser building in Washington. Fol
s7zzzEtVaq score of years they were one of
g zuz-Fzs4iS b4qttraCtions in the capital of The
,.,. -. saIs9gl logic 'f5tiers sought them out
lnochld wiz <b;ng N olyes recounted the
scenes which 5urrylng age are
= rapidly fadlnGN 7 Te nations memory,
4 to be preserveda | ever, on the glowing
page Il history. rangers from abroad
. gazed upon thenfas proof OF the ability
Of people without g standing army TO
create an army of volunteers by magic
unknown in other countries to protect
their institutions at all hazards.
At last, however, these battle flags were
packed away in boxes and stored in cellar
or attic where access to them vas i'm
possible. The time had arrived when the
spirit of Charles Summers resolution in
the Senate, that ait is ineXpedtent that
the M qes of victories obtained over our
fellow citizens should be placed on the
regimental colOr5 of the United States"
began to dissipate the fierce animosities
eng ndered by war Sumner read the
problem Alright, but be was twenty years
ahead of his time. He saw, and we all
see it now, that & magnsnimOus victor
can afford to forget that il north and
south aTe to stand shoulder TO shoulder
in coming generations the fiery and terri
bic memories of the past must be obliter-
ated by the loyalty that was born when
IN al m
That same policy wss adopted by Mr.
Cleveland. But he, too, is possibly ahead
of his time. When the national drill OC-
cured in Washington and he ssw the
northern and southern soldiers drawn up
in line together the scene itself suggested
the action which ne afterward took. He
saw the representatives Of the whole
country from the lakes to the Gulf msrch
in review. Sectional differences had disap-
pgareu forever. Mason and DiXon's line
no longer existed. Slavery mad been eX-
4 nguished NORTH and south stood for
elderly and union, one and inseparable,
now and forever"
Perhaps he recalled the fact that the
Ninth Connecticut Volunteers had given
back to tha Third Mississippi the flag
they c2BtgTed from that regiment, and
also the fact that the Confederates had
returned their fsg TO the lG4th New York
Volunteers, and other incidents of like
nature, which show that the American
people can fight like heroes and forgive
like brothers. With the consciousness
that the spirit of unity is TO be
tostered, that sectional ties are to
be strengthened, he leaped, too
hastily, perhaps, to the conclusion that
tleridded flags might be returned to the
northern regiments which had deposited
-, EF,y No, he
sol them regiments from which they were
captured
Il was plan worthy OF the President
OF united people. II mad its origin in
that pre-science which tskes in the future
and would prepare 10 fifty welcome it. II
reminds US of the words OF Grant on his
death bed: az feel inst we ere on the
eve Of 3 new era, when there is to be
crest harmony between the Federal and
Confederate. / cannot stay to be liy-
ing witness TO the correctness OF this
prophecy, but I feel it within me thst it
is to be So Letus have peace -
But there are reasons why it cannot be
81 once successfully carried out. Mr..
Cleveland recognizes the statute which
throws the matter, and rightly, into the
hands of Congress. The people, it is
said, are not ready for it. As a whole
we believe that they are quite ready. At
any rate 1t will De done ten or twenty
years hence, when our children take our
places Then the last remnant of sec
tioraI feeling will have passed away and
we shall be really one people, the no.
blest, strongest nation on the globe. Mr.
Cleveland, therefore, throws the respon-
sibility upon the shoulders of Congress
and the country.
General Fairchild, churlish aspirsnt
for the presidency himself, invoked the
palsy on the hand brain and tongne Of the
man who hoped to make the country q
solid unit His capital in trade would
disappear were sectional feeling TO die.
His hope is to lift the tide Of hatred that
he may ride on It's crest to power. Els
language is that of q charlstan, and his
curses can do no better than come home to
roost. He does not represent the veterans,
only his personal scheme for perfermeat
Let that pass. The soldiers have been
the first to forget wrong, and II they
place the country which they saved on g